Organizer Information
Center for Book Arts (CBA), founded in 1974, is the oldest nonprofit organization in the United States dedicated to uplifting and furthering the book arts through education, preservation, exhibition, art making, and community building. It was founded by book artist and master bookbinder Richard Minsky and became the first organization of its kind in the country, serving as a model for similar institutions established elsewhere. The organization began in a Greenwich Village storefront on Bleecker Street, later moved to Broadway in 1984, and has been based in Manhattan's Flatiron district since 1999. CBA defines book arts broadly, encompassing all crafts relevant to producing and manufacturing books — from typography and printing to hand bookbinding, repair, and restoration. Alongside its Chapbook Program, the organization runs studio space, classes, exhibitions, and public programming that connect the book arts community to the wider spheres of contemporary art and literature.
Title & Description
2027 Chapbook Contest
Center for Book Arts invites submissions to its annual Poetry Chapbook Program. Each year a distinguished guest judge selects one winning manuscript and two runners-up. As part of the award package, CBA commissions artists to hand-produce a limited-edition run of 100 chapbooks for the winning manuscript, a limited-edition run of 100 chapbooks for a manuscript selected by the guest judge, and a limited-edition broadside of 100 for each runner-up, featuring one poem from their respective manuscripts. The program pairs the craft of letterpress, RISO, hand-binding, and fine printing with contemporary poetry manuscripts, culminating in a public reading and publication launch. The winning manuscript will be determined by the guest judge in May 2027.
Categories
- Poetry
- Writing
- Creative Writing
- Literature
- Competition (as a format, reflected under Categories where relevant to discipline)
Eligibility
- No nationality, geographic, or age restriction stated in the source
- Submission must be a collection or sequence of original poems, or a single long poem
- Manuscript must not exceed 450 lines or 21 pages (title and acknowledgments pages excluded from this limit)
- Translations of the author's own work are permitted
- Translations of other writers' work are not accepted, unless specifically and consensually co-authored by both the original writer and the translator
- Manuscript must not include the author's name anywhere in the file or document, as review is conducted anonymously
- Text manuscripts only — visual poems or illustrated manuscripts are not accepted at this time
- Poems that have been previously published elsewhere remain eligible for submission
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, with the request that CBA be notified promptly if the work is accepted elsewhere so the application can be withdrawn
Program Benefits & Awards
- Winner: ten copies of their own chapbook
- Winner: $500 honorarium
- Winner: $500 stipend to participate in the competition reading public program
- Winner: a week-long stay at Millay Arts during its Wintertide Rustic Retreat season (stated value: $480)
- Winner: one copy of the guest judge's chapbook
- Winner: copies of each runner-up's broadside
- Each Runner-Up: ten copies of their own limited-edition broadside
- Each Runner-Up: $250 honorarium to participate in the competition reading
- Each Runner-Up: one copy of the winner's chapbook
- Each Runner-Up: one copy of the guest judge's chapbook
- All selected manuscripts/poems: professional design and production by commissioned artists using letterpress, RISO, hand-binding, and fine printing techniques
Application Fee
$30. A fee waiver period is available from October 1 to October 15, 2026 (mechanism for requesting the waiver is not detailed in the source).
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 15 December 2026
- Application Fee Waiver Window: October 1–October 15, 2026
- Winner Selection: May 2027 (by the guest judge)
Location
New York, NY, United States
Additional Details
- Serial rights: CBA accepts simultaneous submissions but asks to be notified promptly if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere so the application can be withdrawn.
- Rights reversion: if a body of work is accepted and published by CBA, rights revert to the author, who is free to republish elsewhere or authorize others to do so, with a requested credit line: "[publication name] by [author] was first published with the Center for Book Arts in [year]."
- Non-exclusive reprint rights: CBA may use parts of a submitted or published work for promotional materials (e.g., marketing the next contest); if CBA intends to use the work for something it plans to sell, the author will be contacted about compensation before proceeding.
- CBA states it cannot provide feedback on submissions due to application volume; all applicants are notified of their manuscript's status by email.
- The organizer notes that publications from previous competitions are available through its online bookshop, and that a full list of past judges and winners is provided elsewhere on its site.